MY ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY PMI ON THEIR WEBSITE.

1. PMI Virtual Library
© 2011 Ajay Widge
Process Improvement and Documentation:
The Project From Heck
By Ajay Widge, PMP
A
s project management professionals, we have all documents that contained the policies, which were in place
become increasingly aware of the importance of the within the capital market operations unit of the investment
so-called “soft skills” aspect of our profession. In banking group.
recent years, skills such as time management, communication This project had two streams:
(verbal and non-verbal), emotional intelligence (EQ), • The documentation of
facilitation, conflict resolution, and organizational existing policies and
management have received more and more recognition compiling them in a The major
as essential aspects of successful project management. To single document,
that list, let’s add a skill I like to call “project relationship per the business lesson learned during
management” or PRM. process that
The documentation of processes and procedures is would act this project was that
a much talked about subject in today’s business world. as the minimum
Numerous events in the corporate world have led to a standard, and communicating the vision
heightened level of oversight, with regulators and auditors that each
taking a closer look at the procedures and controls that have group in the of the management in
been put into place by management and also examining department
the extent of their compliance by businesses. The need for would adhere to. creating this template and
complete documentation was reinforced by the introduction • Prepare and
of the Sarbanes-Oxley rules (SOX), and auditors started recommend a the possible uses for this
taking a very close look at the formal documentation of template for the
policies and controls put into place by senior management.
At the time of the introduction of the SOX rules, there was a
documentation
of desk procedures
level of detail were
rush by many businesses to create an appropriate document in the department
library that demonstrated the existence of such controls; to ensure the standard
absolutely
”
an entire industry grew up around SOX preparedness and presentation and extent
compliance with both the letter and spirit of the regulations. of detail of the information crucial.
I was involved in a project for the documentation of gathered.
existing policies in a department of a former employer, a bank
with a global presence and significant exposure to the major I would like to share my experience working on this
capital markets. The mandate for me was to prepare a set of project and the lessons learned during its execution.

2. A. Policy Documentation The major tasks for this project were broken down
The mandate for this project was to gather existing policies into the following steps:
in force in different business lines in the operations unit. • Research the best practices for each process, which was
Policies had been passed over time in a variety of ways, done using online resources and downloading best
including office orders and emails, which had been issued at practices documentation and recommendations from
various points in time and resided in a multitude of locations various sources (regulators, industry associations, and so
and people’s memories. There were also some policies and forth)
controls, which had evolved over time, with process changes • Interview the business SME resources allocated to the
based on discussions and verbal approvals of exceptions and project by management
no formal documentation available for scrutiny or validation. • Prepare an initial compilation of the current policies
There was also the intention to use this project to ensure currently in each group for the process sequentially.
compliance with the enterprise-wide risk and control policies • Consolidate the compilation into a draft policy
in force and to provide a documented basis for policy setting document, based on information gathered by cross
going forward. It was required that the policies recommended referencing the best practices with existing practices.
would act as the minimum standards for the department, with • Discuss the draft policy document with each group head
individual business unit heads free to set higher standards and incorporate the feedback and comments received.
for their units, based on their tolerance for operational risk • Once approval has been received from the group heads,
and organizational preparedness; any exceptions would be recommend the policy document to the project sponsor
formally documented and approved; so, an exception approval for final approval and signing into policy.
procedure was embedded within each document.
Approved documents were then circulated to all staff and
Approach to the project: also saved on the intranet site of the department for future
In order to comply with the bank’s project management reference by all employees.
methodology, I was asked to create the standard project artefacts
(e.g., a project plan and periodic project update reports). This The challenges faced in this project:
looked like a research-intense project and, after discussions This project had its fair share of challenges; the biggest
with senior management, I decided to break down the project ones revolved around the dry nature of the subject and also
activities by process rather than by business line, because the resistance from the staff that had to set aside time to locate
same processes were carried out across various business lines documents and share knowledge. The major challenges were:
but with varying frequencies and with different impacts on the • Gathering the details of existing policies and formal
business line operations. The approach agreed on was: policy pronouncements issued in documents and emails.
• Obtain a list of business contact names for each process Some people had vague recollections of the reasons why
within the various groups; this became the list of the they were following the policies in the first place, whereas
SME (subject matter expert) resources available to me. others were ignorant and performing the tasks as they had
• Identify the major processes in the department (e.g., been trained to do.
reconciliation, trade confirmations, daily P&L [profit & • Gathering “best practices” for the processes; most
loss], accounting, and so forth). These were listed after documents were not specific enough to provide
discussions with the business SME resources and became guidance for the specific situation of the organization’s
a detailed scope document for the project. work culture. The recommended practices had to
• Discuss the list of major processes with senior be extrapolated to identify guidance on the specific
management and decide on the priority for documenting processes.
each; this eventually became the project schedule. • Finding time on the business contacts calendars for this
“low” priority project, which didn’t improve their work
After various discussions with the business contacts, the lives in any visible way.
list of major processes was finalized and reviewed with senior • After the draft documents were circulated for review,
management. The next step was to prepare a detailed plan there were similar “no time on the calendar” issues with
for the project. The project approach was broken down into group heads for their inputs. This was also driven by the
its components for planning and scheduling the tasks and perceived low priority of the project when compared with
expanded into a WBS (work breakdown structure). the process improvement initiatives that were underway
PMI Virtual Library | www.PMI.org | © 2011 Ajay Widge
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3. in the department and made life visibly easier for the supervisor revealed an interest in standardizing procedures
group. throughout the department to the extent possible to permit
cross movement of staff based on work needs. The plan was to
Lessons learned during the project: ensure complete and consistent documents, which would also
Like any project, there were a number of lessons that I learned serve as training tools. This was a first step in that direction.
while carrying out the various tasks in this project: The layout of the document template was discussed over
• Needless to say, good writing skills are a must; use of clear the course of multiple discussions with my supervisor; the
and simple language is important because it prevents document was to serve the following purposes:
misinterpretation of the words. • Capture the sequential processes performed at the various
• Each organization has its own commonly used preferred operational desks.
terms; use these terms to the extent possible because the • Provide a greater understanding of the purposes of the
readers are familiar with them and are able to understand tasks performed at the desk; this would also promote
the context and references when used in the document. a better understanding of the relevance of the process
When I joined this firm, I had worked in various other within a larger context.
firms and, out of habit, started using the terminology I • Provide a link to the activities preceding and succeeding
was familiar with. My supervisor cautioned me and asked these tasks (i.e., list the activities that this desk depended
me to gather a list of terms that were in use (e.g., breaks on as well as the activities that depended on this desk).
versus reconciliation items, etc.), which were then used This would give the incumbent a good sense of the
consistently in the documents. various dependencies within the organization and the
• It is absolutely imperative to get buy-in from the leaders specific role each one played in the larger scheme of
of the various groups and ensure they pass the same things.
message down the line.
• Getting time commitment from the reviewers is hard, so After many discussions and template versions, an
be prepared for regular follow up. acceptable document was agreed on; the template was divided
• Writing documents is a very dry and boring exercise; it into the following sections:
really helps if there is another mini project underway • Background: this section gave a brief description of the
in parallel to break the monotony. Far from acting as desk and how it contributes to the activities of the team
a distraction, this is a great way to bring some much that the desk is a part of.
needed variety during the work day. • Critical tasks carried out at the desk: this section gave
details of the major tasks carried out at the desk; this was
B. Desk Procedures Template a sub-set of the desk activities, which were copied into
Documentation of desk procedures is another onerous task this separate section to highlight the key tasks. Also listed
to which there is usually no more than a little lip service paid were the deadlines for completing these tasks.
by those writing them; people are forced to document their • Desk procedures: this section contained the sequential
work day steps and each one interprets the requirements in a listing of the tasks carried out in the desk. This was the
different way. The end result is a hodgepodge of writing styles heart of the document and contained the detailed tasks
and documents written in varying levels of detail. Some facts carried out at the desk.
reside in the memories of the users, which only they can see • Source files required: this section listed the data files and
as obvious, so they don’t merit mention in the document. reports required to conduct the tasks of the desk. The file
Some processes are deemed so clear that they are given a names, mode of receipt, time of receipt, format of the file
cursory mention (a real-life example from an earlier job in (hard copy/Excel, and so forth).
which the person handing over his responsibilities to me had • End result of the desk process: this section listed the end
documented his monthly reconciliation process using the products of the daily tasks (reports generated, accounting
following words: “receive data extract from “abc” and create numbers, rates, trade matches, and so forth) and a
spreadsheets as appropriate…”). description, including names of reports, downstream
For this task, I created a standardized template for recipients of the end product, and so forth.
recording desk procedures for the department. This would • System accesses required: a list of the programs and
provide a common format for writing detailed procedures systems required, along with the user profile required to
across each business line. Initial discussions with my conduct the tasks of the desk.
PMI Virtual Library | www.PMI.org | © 2011 Ajay Widge
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4. • Monthly/quarterly/annual tasks: this section contained Eventually, I piloted the use of this template in a project
details of the periodic tasks conducted at each periodic I led; the document was well received by the users, who took
interval, with the same level of detail as in the main body up the new processes from the project team. They were able to
of the document. understand the procedures and their interlinking very easily
and adopted the operational processes very comfortably. This
Challenges faced in this project: told me that the template certainly had its uses; however,
This project also had its fair share of challenges; the biggest the ultimate use for the template should have been clearly
ones revolved around the resistance from users to document thought out and communicated to the users in order to
their procedures in such great detail. The template looked obtain their support for this initiative.
intimidating and required the users to capture information
they felt was irrelevant to performing their daily tasks. They Conclusion
saw more value in just listing the daily steps they took in This project team faced a number of challenges in the execution
performing the duties for their desks rather than capturing of the tasks; the team was able to complete only a few documents
the details that didn’t relate to their duties. and get them approved before the project was re-prioritized
and the resources re-allocated to more pressing projects. This
Lessons learned during the project: further served to highlight the issue of management support
The major lesson learned during this project was that and commitment to an activity that is perceived to be non-value
communicating the vision of the management in creating added. This lack of support was a recurring theme reported by
this template and the possible uses for this level of detail the project team and was an ongoing challenge for which we
were absolutely crucial. Without the support of middle failed to find a satisfactory resolution.
management and the desk staff, who was responsible for
completing this template, meant that users complained that About the Author
this was too much work, and that the existing documentation Ajay Widge is a chartered accountant from India, a CFA
was adequate for the business needs. Required time was Charter holder, and a PMP. He has over 20 years’ of
not allocated and the template was not well received. This experience in various aspects of risk management, operations,
template was circulated to a couple of departments that were and accounting in capital markets in India, the Middle
in the process of documenting their desk procedures, but the East, and North America. For the past six years, he has
level of details required met with much resistance and the been working as a project manager with leading financial
departments declined to use them. institutions in Canada.
PMI Virtual Library | www.PMI.org | © 2011 Ajay Widge
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